The People's Champion?

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
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I see from the front page of the RP site that they're launching one of those vox pop surveys.

The People's Champion? There's only one horse that could be | Racing Post

The article is by Chris Cook but I'd have to say Young Hustler wouldn't have got near my radar.

To be honest, I'd probably have to think very long and hard in order to come up with one horse that fits the bill.

Would one spring to mind readily for anyone?
 
Hurricane Fly

22 Grade 1 wins spanning nearly 6 and a half years, held the record for most G1 wins in the history of racing until that Aussie mare kept beating a few Mules a couple of dozen times

Hurricane Fly and Kauto pound for pound the 2 greatest NH horses of all time for me

You'll be lucky to see the likes of em again
 
I suppose something boring like desert orchid is in there as well?

You could make a case for Hunt Ball before it all went stupid


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I think they're looking to avoid the 'greats' (like Dessie etc), so maybe a Red Rum / Tiger Roll type.

On the Flat, for me something like Sergeant Cecil or Negus or what-was-the-handicapper-that-kept-defying-rises-in-the-mega-handicaps-Take-Something?

Over the jumps, maybe a Willie Wumpkins or the like?

To be honest it seems too open to personal favouritism to be meaningful.
 
Desert Orchid said:
what-was-the-handicapper-that-kept-defying-rises-in-the-mega-handicaps-Take-Something?
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Take A Reef?

From Wiki:

[h=3]1974: three-year-old season[edit][/h]Take A Reef made his three-year-old debut in the Epsom Handicap over ten furlongs at Epsom Downs Racecourse. Carrying a weight of 121 pounds on heavy ground he won by five lengths. In the Cosmopolitan Cup over the same distance at Lingfield Park Racecourse he failed to recover after being badly hampered at half way and finished fourth. In July, Take A Reef carried a weight of 124 pounds when he was matched against older horses in the valuable John Smith's Magnet Cup over ten and a half furlongs at York Racecourse. Racing on firm ground, he won by two lengths from the four-year-old Superior Sam, to whom he was conceding sixteen pounds. The other beaten horses included Prominent, winner of the Prix Foy and two previous runnings of the Magnet Cup. The form of the race was boosted when Superior Sam won the PTS Laurels Stakes at Goodwood in August by four lengths.[SUP][5][/SUP]
Take A Reef's York win meant that he had to carry a weight penalty of six pounds when he contested the Extel Stakes at Goodwood, taking his weight up to 137 pounds. His eighteen opponents included the Britannia Stakes winner Final Chord, the Free Handicap runner-up Spanish Warrior, Rymer (1975 Brigadier Gerard Stakes), Riboson (1975 Yorkshire Cup) and Record Run (1975 Prince of Wales's Stakes). He looked cool and calm in the paddock on a very hot day which saw many of his rivals sweating freely. He was restrained in the early stages before making rapid progress in the straight to take the lead inside the final furlong and won by a half a length from Final Chord (carrying 126) with Rymer (118) in third.[SUP][5][/SUP]
It was intended that Take A Reef would end his season with a run in the Group One Champion Stakes at Newmarket in October. Six weeks before the race, the colt sustained a serious injury to the tendons in his left foreleg during and exercise gallop at Newmarket and never raced again.[SUP][5][/SUP]
 
Desert Orchid said:
I see from the front page of the RP site that they're launching one of those vox pop surveys.

The People's Champion? There's only one horse that could be | Racing Post

The article is by Chris Cook but I'd have to say Young Hustler wouldn't have got near my radar.

To be honest, I'd probably have to think very long and hard in order to come up with one horse that fits the bill.

Would one spring to mind readily for anyone?
Click to expand...

These guys get paid for old rope. Young Hustler was alovely horse but a crowd puller.....the guys is on drugs ffs
 
L'Escargot.
Ran in the best company from 1967 to 1975.
Supreme Novice Hurdle winner 1968, competed at The Festival every year 1968 to 1975.
Possibly the only horse to start fav or second fav in Champion Hurdle , Gold Cup and Grand National.
Ran in multiple handicap chases carrying top weight and always performed credibly , despite not winning from Nov 1972 to 1975 Grand National.
Placed in two Kerry Nationals and two Irish Grand Nationals to add to his U.S. Steeplechaser Of The Year award 1969 .
In short a horse for all seasons.
 
That's more sensible that some of the sillu suggestions on here Frankel.

Some of those mentioned wouldn't draw a crowd if racing was free.......The Tatling Hewick L'Escargot, Take a Reef, Persian Punch, Lyrical, could all be running at Sandown and if Kauto Star was running at Kempton on the same day I know to which course the race lovers would be heading.
 
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It's near impossible to pick one based on performances, or particularly loved but not perhaps the greatest, Ela Mana Mou would be one for me, Ardross...should have won the Arc/Piggott bereft.....Rummy, Grand National day was Rummy for years, but from personal, huge chunk of life direction changed for me would have to be Hannigan's Lodger and I bet I'd be only vote she would get and that would be just fine.
 
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Oh tanlic’s just trolling for effect - unusual for him I know, but there you go - it’s wasted on most of us.

It’s a massively subjective thing being a people’s champion - especially if they are wanting to leave out the usual suspects. I think it’s the stories around them that people tend to latch on to - battash and his groom, horses like The Tatling and others like him that are based on sheer longevity of their careers - and then you move into the realms of horses like Roaring Lion who caught a lot of imaginations just for being pretty ( and quite good!)

I’m the same with Happy - I’d vote for him but I can bet I’d be the only person to, despite him having his own little following :)


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Hardly trolling it just makes the mind boggle how many people have turned this into "my fav horse"

The question was name the peoples champion.

in 1966 everything stopped in hour street and those who never had a telly came round to the houses that did have a telly to watch "ARKLE" the peoples Champion

Red Rum was certainly not my favourite horse but there's no denying he became the peoples Champion.

Horses like Dessie and Kauto were racegoers favourites but you couldn't call them the Peoples Champion.

In the USA they flocked to see Zenyatta ordinary folk buy scarves donning her colours was considered the peoples Champion and in Australia Black Caviar stopped traffic when she ran.

They are known worldwide and what I would consider the peoples champion not some obscure horse who won 8 races at Redcar.
 
trudij said:
Oh tanlic’s just trolling for effect - unusual for him I know, but there you go - it’s wasted on most of us.

It’s a massively subjective thing being a people’s champion - especially if they are wanting to leave out the usual suspects. I think it’s the stories around them that people tend to latch on to - battash and his groom, horses like The Tatling and others like him that are based on sheer longevity of their careers - and then you move into the realms of horses like Roaring Lion who caught a lot of imaginations just for being pretty ( and quite good!)

I’m the same with Happy - I’d vote for him but I can bet I’d be the only person to, despite him having his own little following :)


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You think the Tatling was the people's champion? 90% of punters couldn't tell you who trained the horse ffs and they got 6 to pick from
 
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Tanlic said:
You think the Tatling was the people's champion? 90% of punters couldn't tell you who trained the horse ffs
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True, so it would go to a vote and it wouldn't get many votes but it's a contender for Trudij's champion. I think the whole idea is pointless because it will come back down to the Kautos and Sprinters and Istabraqs and Titus Oateses (:rolleyes:). The RP offices are probably just having a quiet time of it and people are hanging around at angles to their desks, sipping pishy coffee, trying hard not to scratch their areseholes in public and throwing ideas out there to see if the editors fall for any of them.
 
This should really be a "without himself" market

(the one that sprung to mind was Double Trigger but that one's up against Persian Punch)
 
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